Joint Account

sara86pink

Me and the OH are going to be opening a joint account over next couple of weeks to set up our rent and bills for our new flat together.

We plan on paying in enough money to cover the rent and bills and ideally we would want an overdraft of no more than £100 just incase a bill comes out when not expected for some reason (just to have a little cover)

Just to set the record straight, we will both be paying in equal amounts so its fair!

Because I have a £700 overdraft with my bank, I would like to set it up through a different one and my OH has suggested setting up with his bank account (Lloyds) because he's always had good customer service through them. He has a minimum overdraft and a loan which he pays on time for everytime so no problems there.

Will this be ok for us or would we be better off getting an account with a whole different bank? I just dont want things to get too complicated!

Thanks

Tixy

Are both of you in an okay position debt wise?
The issue with using the same bank is they could use money from one account to repay the other if you went into arrears, so if neither this account nor his account is likely to have a large debt then you could use his bank. If he lost his job and couldn't pay the loan they could in theory raid the joint account to repay it.

If one of you has a good credit score and one not so good then you might want to consider not having an overdraft. Having an overdraft will financially link you to each other whereas a bank account with no credit facility should not, might not matter for your circumstances, or you might already be linked but thought I'd mention it.

How much are you going to be putting in each month? you might want to see if you could benefit from some of the awards accounts or get a bonus for opening a new account (eg with halifax if you pay in £1k per month then you get £5 per month) http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/compare-best-bank-accounts